Designs on the Web

So you think it’s time your company created a website? The first question you should ask yourself is: why?

There is a great mad panic at present among companies to get websites set up, And the brief is nearly always completely inadequate. Many companies have only a vague feeling of where they want to go. They have no idea what they want to achieve from a business perspective.

We, at ITNTI, generally start a project with talking to the CEO, then we might sit down with the IT, the marketing director, and a whole range of other department heads. It could be a day, but it can be several weeks just assessing what the business is trying to do.

So step one in designing a website is: define your goals. It is really helpful if they are quantifiable goals - ones whose achievement can be measured. It is worth asking if the website is the best way to achieve those goals at all. Might some other medium be just as effective?

Step two is: be prepared to dig deep into the company coffers. The time of playing with e-commerce is over. Companies are now more aware of what the internet can do, but they are not yet aware of the resources that need to be put in. Websites need not only design, but also systems behind them to make them work effectively with the company’s existing IT setup. Software alone can cost tens of thousands of Rupees. You have to budget to keep the site updated. For example, Apple Europe has 174 people keeping its site updated, and one of our clients went from three people to 28. That is the sort of commitment needed.

Equally, vital is establishing the chain of command within your company. Who is going to be responsible for the website project and its ongoing maintenance? Who is going to co-ordinate the input from various different departments?

You have to have a cohesive strategy. There is nothing worse than having 50 different people each responsible for their own bit of the site; it’s a recipe for disaster!

Information Architecture

Having sorted out budgets and chains of command, the next big area is information architecture. The most common request customers make is for us to put their brochures on the web. That is a total lack of understanding of what the web does.

The next most common request is for us to reword the company’s brochure and make it interactive. What such customers don’t realize is that the web is an opportunity to change the whole way you do business, to interact with your customers in a whole new way.

The job of information architects is often to turn the company brochure on its head. Lets take Nat West Bank for example. The company’s first-generation site had thousands of pages of brochureware; product information arranged according to the bank’s own corporate structure.

The bank wanted to make that more accessible and user-friendly. The solution was to keep the same basic data, but put another layer on top, arranged according to lifestyle events. Visitors to the site can now choose from categories such as buying a car, buying a house, and going on a holiday, and there are links from there to the information about the specific products deep within the site.

Companies are more aware of what the net can do but they are not aware of the resources needed.

The key to getting the information architecture right is, of course, the old marketer’s adage of understanding what the customer wants, and that in turn means defining who the customer is.

Businesses should not forget that users come to the site for a specific purpose. A site that enables them to achieve that purpose with a minimum of fuss is a well-designed site.

There are a number of universal rules concerning the ordering of information on the web. One is that a site should start shallow and broad, and become deeper and narrower. That is, the homepage should contain brief summaries of the various options on the site that customers can then click on to get more detailed information. This process of ‘drilling down’ is one of the key differences between a brochure and a website. A website can contain long product write-ups, but they should not be on the opening pages.

Beware of offering too many options on the homepage. The brain can only remember seven options. Therefore a properly-targeted site should be able to get by as few as three initial options.

However well-ordered the pages on your sites are, different users will want to read them in different orders, so consistent and clear navigation is essential. Users are not going to take the time to learn how your system works; if it does not conform to the way it should, they will not go on.

It is vital that users don’t get lost or end up at dead ends. The usual way of ensuring this does not happen is to have a navigation bar permanently in view, wherever the user is in the site. This is usually on the left or top of the screen, although there is no good reason why it should not be on the right hand of the screen, where the mouse hovers.

Whatever the system adopted, it must be consistent. Look at any of the major portals – such as Netscape or MSN.com – and you will see they are very regimented in this respect. They keep the same elements in the same place throughout, so people get used to them.

Bells and Whistles

Beyond such basics, there are a number of bells and whistles that sites can add, but these have proved controversial. Flash is pretty and attractive to designers, but it is a pain to users because the connections are not fast enough, The first time you go to site with Flash, it is entertaining, but when you go back again it drives you bonkers.

One way to be sure that Flash, or any other feature, is right for your site is to test it, and this is another stage that all designers strongly stress. A lot of companies don’t find time for this; they just get the site up there and amend it later. Expensive mistakes often follow.

In the future, if the website is efficient, people will assume that the company is efficient too.

Website design can also have implications for corporate branding. Corporate designs – logos, corporate colours and so on – are usually designed for print media when the page size and the context in which they are viewed are known in advance, where the thousands of colours are possible, and where resolution is typically 600 to 1200 dpi (dots per inch). In contrast, a computer screen has only 72 dpi and usually has only 256 colours. Logos that have too much fine detail can break up on screen, and your corporate green might come out as murky brown.

Websites will also impact on corporate branding in another way. We think in the future, if the site is efficient, people will assume that the company is efficient too. Even the speed a page downloads might , in future, impact on a brand. For example, if you are a technology firm and your website is slow, what kind of message does that give?

Designing for the Future

If you think getting a website up and running is complicated, think of this: companies such as Nat West are already adapting their websites to run on mobile phone WAP platform and interactive digital television (IDTV)

People go on-line to perform a function; either they want to find out information or they want to buy something. Too many clicks to complete a task and graphics which take ages get in the way. Hence, Designing a website is not something that should be done in isolation from the rest of your marketing. An attractive appearance can ensure a website stands out from the crowd but, it is vital that the purpose of the site in not overlooked.

(Compiled by Mahendra Vesawkar who looks after the business development at ITNTI, Information Technology & Telecom company with references from International writings)

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